Darragh O’Neill punts the football during a scrimmage in 2012 in Boulder. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

BOULDER — Darragh O’Neill punts for the Colorado Buffaloes but is a massive soccer fan. And his favorite player, of course, is Colorado Rapids defender Shane O’Neill, his brother. My story on the pair appears in Friday’s Post and space limitations prevented me from getting Darragh’s views on Shane.

They weren’t the standard accolades. Shane is one year removed from Fairview High yet is starting in the MLS. Instead, Darragh praised Shane’s decision to shun college — he received a scholarship offer from Virginia — to turn pro.

Darragh and I talked shortly after Shane’s United States team went 0-2-1 in the Under-20 World Cup in Turkey. That included a 4-1 thrashing against Ghana, a team the U.S. has never defeated at any level. More than 30 years after the youth soccer explosion, the U.S. is still struggling to become a world power.

At the youth level, they appear worse. I told Darragh a lot of it is coaching.

“Coaching definitely but the push toward college hurts, too,” he said.

That’s why he said Shane made the right move. The brothers have completely different lives athletically.

“I sit here and go to class most of the day,” said Darragh, wearing a jersey from the Scottish power, Celtic FC. “Then I have a little bit of time to punt in the afternoon or lift. I look at Shane and he goes to the Rapids every single day. He does whatever workouts he wants. He kicks the ball for an hour or two, just working on small, little things. He has the whole day to work just on soccer.

“Student-athletes have a test tomorrow. You can’t touch the ball. It’s finals week, you can’t touch the ball for two weeks. It really sets American soccer back a lot.”

Shane joined the Rapids’ academy in 2009 but there are many instances of players in the MLS’ growing collection of academies who get burned out on soccer. After all, burnout is almost a right of passage among American youth.

Shane, however, doesn’t appear to be a victim. Then again, it should be noted that he’s one of only three products of the academy on the Rapids’ active roster. O’Neill is the only one of the three who has played this year. Of Colorado’s 21 American players, 18 went to college.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people say now he made the right decision,” Darragh said. “He’s starting for an MLS team. With European teams they’re so much about youth. By the time you get out of college, you’re used goods to them. Nobody wants to pick up a 23-year-old player. They want a 19-, 20-year-old at the latest.

“I firmly bleieve he’s going to play in the Premier League some or at the top level. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Daniel was first introduced to soccer at age 6 while living in Düsseldorf, West Germany. He played youth soccer in West Germany until age 9, and then in Seattle, where he is originally from. He works as the day breaking news editor and also contributes on the Rapids beat.